Speaking to AFP, the officials said Western support was also critical to halting Russia’s Wagner mercenary group which has made major inroads in violence-torn Sahel countries, including by allying with Mali’s military junta.

Vice President Kamala Harris, visiting Ghana last month as part of a growing US push in Africa, promised $100 million over 10 years to reinforce resilience in coastal West Africa. State Department officials are also looking at additional funding including from the counter-terrorism budget.

In a new global strategy to prevent conflict and promote stability, President Joe Biden’s administration identified coastal West Africa as a priority for the coming decade.

The report, released in March, said that the Sahel to the immediate north had experienced more terrorist attacks than any other region and that it was critical to “prevent violent conflicts from emerging or further spreading across the region.”

While coastal cities connected to the world through seaports have been mostly unscathed, violence has been rising in areas bordering Mali and Burkina Faso.

“It’s a significant and burgeoning threat,” said Michael Heath, the deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of West Africa.

“It’s something of concern to us because the capabilities of the governments in place — they’ve never faced a threat like this before,” he told AFP.

“They’re trying to cope with this, and we’re trying to see what kind of tools they need,” said Heath, who recently returned from a trip to the region with other State Department officials to assess needs.

Heath said he has not yet seen a presence in the three countries of the Wagner Group, which has been accused of human rights abuses in several countries including Ukraine, where the unit has played a key role in the invasion.

“They’re not yet in the coastal West African states, but we know they’re looking for opportunities to take advantage of instability wherever they see it,” he said.

US officials accuse Russia of stepping up disinformation in French-speaking Africa, seeing a ripe audience due to post-colonial resentments.

In the suit numbered NICN/BEN/04/2022, dated June 22, 2022, the AAU chapter of the ASUU accused the management of the institution of contempt of court orders of February 2  and May 17, 2022, mandating the payment of January and February 2022 salaries of some members of ASUU, who were aggrieved by the biometric verification exercise.

The plaintiffs in the suit, alongside ASUU, were the Chairman, ASUU, AAU Ekpoma chapter, Dr. Cyril Onogbosele, and the Assistant Secretary, Dr. William Odion, against six defendants in the suit including the acting Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Asomwan Adagbonyin, and the acting Registrar, Mr. Ambrose Odiase.

Counsel to the claimants, Abayomi Thomas, in the suit, cited, ‘‘Motion on notice brought pursuant to Order 63, Rules 5 (1), 5(3), and 6 of the National Industrial Court Rules 2017,’’ and sought the intervention of the court to institute contempt proceedings against the management and subsequent reliefs to be granted to the plaintiffs as deemed fit by the court.

Recently, the AAU branch of ASUU and the management of the state-owned university have been at loggerheads over the suspension of union activities by the latter.

Edo State Government at its State Executive Council meeting on June 8, 2022, suspended all union activities across all state-owned institutions of higher learning, which was swiftly contested in court by ASUU.

The plaintiffs, Dr. Cyril Onogbosele and Dr. William Odion had asked the court to determine whether the state government and other defendants in the suit had the power under section 40 of the Constitution and section 35(3) of the Trade Unions Act, to suspend or prohibit trade union activities in AAU.

The claimants, therefore, urged the court to declare the ban as “unconstitutional, illegal, null and void and same is ultra vires the powers of the defendants.”

The return sets a precedent that will put pressure on other institutions to return stolen artefacts.

The sculpture of a cockerel was one of the hundreds of Benin Bronzes that were pillaged from the once-mighty Kingdom of Benin, located in what is now Nigeria.

They are among Africa’s most culturally significant artefacts and Nigerian authorities have been calling for years for their return.

“This is the right thing to do out of respect for the unique heritage and history of this artefact,” said Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, in a statement ahead of a ceremony to hand over the cockerel to a Nigerian delegation.

The college described the handover as “the first institutional return of its kind”.

Germany has agreed to start returning Benin Bronzes held in its museums next year, but the British Museum in London, which holds the largest and most significant collection of them, has made no such commitment.

“We thank Jesus College for being a trailblazer and we look forward to a similar return of our artefacts by other institutions that are in possession of them,” said Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture.

After being looted, the cockerel was given to Jesus College in 1905 by the father of a student.
The college announced in 2019 it would return it to Nigeria.

In recent years, a range of British institutions has been grappling with the cultural legacies of colonialism, particularly the issue of what to do about disputed heritage.

The British Museum and other European museums, along with Nigerian authorities, are involved in a Benin Dialogue Group that aims to facilitate the construction in Benin City of a new museum to house returned bronzes.

The British Museum has spoken about “opportunities for sharing and displaying” items from its collection in Nigeria but has never said it would transfer ownership.

The Federal Government planned to extradite the activist on Wednesday (yesterday), but the Benin Republic insisted that it would not be part of any process that was against due process.

A security source in the West African country said, “The Nigerian government planned to extradite him on Wednesday,  but our government said the rule of law must be followed as the world is watching us.”

One of the lawyers of Igboho, Pelumi Olajengbesi said the Benin Republic had shown itself to be a country that respects the rule of law and due process. The lawyer said Igboho’s legal team in the Benin Republic were in talks with the Beninese government.

He noted that despite pressure from the Nigerian government, the government of Benin had insisted on following due process including a repatriation hearing to determine whether or not Igboho was guilty as accused by the Nigerian secret police.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries, that helps foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and reduce poverty around the world.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, in a statement in Washington last night, announced debt service relief for 25 poor countries saying the debt relief was to enable the affected countries to better tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The countries that were relieved of the debt include Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen.

She said, ” Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts. The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the UK and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources. Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries.”

He disclosed that international electricity customers have accumulated a bill of over $100 million since he assumed office as he warned that they will get disconnected if they don’t pay up.

Mohammed said “It is not because I am the chairman of the West African Power Pool (WAAP) that I will be allowing international customers to cheat Nigeria. When I took over as MD TCN, both Benin and Togo were owing Nigeria more than $100 million. The debt now remains $7 million. Niger is owing less than $2 million. In short, we are not leaving them. We disconnect them as we disconnect customers here in Nigeria. Electricity is not charity. We cannot just allow people to consume electricity and leave us like that. As at now, we have restricted their supply to only their contracted ones. We are insisting they pay all their outstanding bills before we reconnect them and we increase the off-take.”